white chocolate macadamia nut pumpkin cookies

no doubt about it – it’s time to start breaking out the pumpkin recipes. there’s no wrong time of year for it, but there’s just something about the chill of the fall and the colors of the trees that makes every pumpkin flavored thing more magical. and while pies are going to be dominating everyone’s lives over the next month, i wanted to try something new.

these cookies are like taking tiny pumpkin pies with you wherever you go, and there’s definitely nothing wrong with that. the combination of white chocolate and pumpkin is surprisingly refreshing – i can’t believe i haven’t seen more recipes featuring both.

i based this recipe on the never-fail tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe, with the ingredient amounts slightly tweaked to adjust for the moisture of the pumpkin. there are 2 things that happen as a result: the cookies have to bake for almost twice the amount of time, and the texture becomes much more moist and cakey. they’re irresistible with a giant glass of milk.

i’ll be honest: these cookies are ridiculously amazing. i cannot stop eating them. if you’ve got weak self control in the presence of delicious sweets, you might want to make these and give them to your best friends as halloween or thanksgiving gifts. and if you’re already overloaded on pumpkin recipes, save this one for later and bring back the flavors of the fall all year round.

1. in a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. in a large bowl, soften the butter in the microwave and cream in the white and brown sugars, pumpkin, vanilla, and eggs. add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger to taste (or smell). if you don’t have all of those spices, pumpkin pie spice works just as well.

3. gradually mix in the flour and add the white chocolate and macadamia nuts. spoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 15-17 minutes. remove to cool on racks and serve immediately with a glass of milk as you lounge in front of a roaring fire.

I’m totally with you on the pumpkin/white choc chips. In general, I’m not a fan of the white ‘chocolate’ but with pumpkin, it’s truly a taste sensation that should not be missed. Can’t wait to try your take on them.

Hi Pete,
Hubby and I like your recipes..We enjoy cooking from scratch verses box cookin and one other thing we like pumpkin bread but not much else from pumpkin..So we like your pumpkin recipe because you smother the pumpkin taste with white choc and mac nuts…Going to give this a try…Wonderful for the autumn/thanksgiving holiday seasons…Or just for the munchie seasons..lol…Thank you and happy baking..The Erwins
P.S Looking forward to more recipes..

These sound really yummy! Could you give us an idea of how much of each spice you used? Also I noticed that in the ingredients it says baking powder and in the directions it says baking soda…which one should I use. Thanks for sharing your recipes!!! I really enjoy your website!

@Jaime – you should use baking powder (i corrected the directions, thanks!) as for the spices, i probably started with about a teaspoon of each and just added dashes as i went to taste. i like my cookies with a little kick, so don’t be shy about adding more!

I love this recipe! I am a huge pumpkin-o-holic, and these are amazing! I sprinkled a little cinnamon-sugar on top right before I put them in the oven and it adds a little something. I also did a batch where I used completely organic ingredients and they still tasted amazing!!!

OMG, these are terrific!!!! I used pecan pieces (I always keep some in the freezer for baking) instead of macademia. As for the spices I used 1 1/2tsp pumpkin pie spice then added 1/8 tsp ginger, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and an extra dash of nutmeg, just because:0) I also like an extra kick of spice, like you said. Thank you so much, I love your website!